Is Kanthal safe to vape with?

[chrisf8657]

I keep seeing things about Kanthal being unsafe. I'm sure this is an old topic that's been discussed many times, but I keep seeing competing opinions.
Came across this today:

"Anyway, to get to my point, Kanthal is made up of FeCrAl as a chemical compound or in layman's terms, Iron, Chromium, and Aluminum. As it burns it creates Aluminum Oxide (some of you may recognize this as the substance used in common sandpaper). Aluminum is one of the few metals that the body NEVER gets rid of...once ingested (or inhaled) it will continue to accumulate throughout your lifetime. Now, I, for one, do not want to be inhaling aluminum oxide every time I take a puff.

The Alternative is Nichrome 80. Nichrome 80 is 80% Nickel and 20% Chromium. Both of which the body will dissapate on it's own accord. In fact, the by product of burning Nichrome is Chromium Oxide which is easily oxidized in normal atmosphere. So take a 'vape', then take a breath of normal air. Get it?"

Furthermore, I read things about it producing Acrolein.

Can anyone give any conclusive statements that Kanthal is safe, or Nichrome 80 is better?
Just want to make sure I'm not hurting my body.

Thanks!

 

[tmel]

Never used Nichrome, but now you've got me thinking

 

[VaPreis]

If your Kanthal is burning, you're doing it wrong.

 

[stevegmu]

I think titanium is better...

 

[tmel]

Doesn't the bad stuff only happen at higher temps then we're using?

 

[chrisf8657]

Doesn't the bad stuff only happen at higher temps then we're using?

I keep wondering that, haven't found a definitive answer.

 

[SkvLTD]

I never really got on the kanthal bandwagon as it seemed unnecessary. Been using nichrome 60 or 80 and been just fine.

 

[Rickajho]

I smell junk science. Where did you come up with that quote? Reddit, perhaps?

 

[pls0138]

The vast majority of vapor you are inhaling is from your e liquid. If your device is working correctly, I don't see how you would be heating your coil or wick up hot enough to release a significant amount of fumes from those sources into your lungs. If you were, I feel like you would taste it and/or notice it right away, and that would mean something is functioning wrong.
I'm sure there is some merit to this statement,and I am far from being a scientist, but the way I look at, you are inhaling the vapor from your liquid, not vapor from a burning coil. That's like saying you are smoking pure butane when you puff on a lit cigarette.

 

[WattWick]

I heard the ill effects cancel each other out if you use kanthal to vaporize antifreeze.

 

[xyanide]

I'm pretty sure that liquids and vapor have been under the scrutiny of heavy metal poisoning for a few years already. I'd like to think that if any study found any amounts of aluminium in the vapor they would have shouted it off the rooftops to get vaping banned and regulated immediately.

 

[SkvLTD]

Well, we still have no idea about the long-term effects. Analogs were all the hype back in the day. Heck, radioactive drinks and treatments were too. I'd keep eyes peeled for studies and whatnot.

 

[pauly walnuts]

Solid substances typically dont shed mass unless they are being corroded or heated. There will be a wide range of temperatures at which metals will not shed any mass, only when it gets close to the melting point and past, will parts of the metal be given off as vapors.

So basically the concern is small amounts of the kanthal are vaporizing and being inhaled. It seems counter to physics to believe that heating a metal far far below its melting point will cause inhalation risk from separated metallic molecules or atoms.

It would be very similar to the statement 'dont boil water in a metal pot, because heating metal to the boiling point of water will contaminate the water with metal'
Completely bogus.

 

[Cman1337]

Solid substances typically dont shed mass unless they are being corroded or heated. There will be a wide range of temperatures at which metals will not shed any mass, only when it gets close to the melting point and past, will parts of the metal be given off as vapors.

So basically the concern is small amounts of the kanthal are vaporizing and being inhaled. It seems counter to physics to believe that heating a metal far far below its melting point will cause inhalation risk from separated metallic molecules or atoms.

It would be very similar to the statement 'dont boil water in a metal pot, because heating metal to the boiling point of water will contaminate the water with metal'
Completely bogus.

Pauly is correct. The Kanthal wire is not going to produce any harmful toxins unless the wire has been heated up to its melting point or higher. The other thing is that over time the wire will corrode and break down, actually lowering the resistance of the wire over longer periods of time. Usually you can see this start to happen where the Kanthal starts to look worn (which 98% of people will probably never see the Kanthal get to the point where it starts to release aluminum oxide.) From what I understand as long as you are keeping temperatures below the melting point and changing your wire every month to month and a half (daily use) you should not run into any harmful repercussions from Kanthal wire.

 

[pauly walnuts]

Its always sickening when people put out junk science to push an agenda. Too often the people who do the reporting have zero expertise in the fields they supposedly know soooo much about, leading others to believe unsubstantiated claims or all out lies.

This is why we all need to be vigilant. The reporters, columnists, business executives, lobbyists, and politicians will prosper under the publics ignorance and face no repercussion if their bad information is exposed. All it takes is for a couple people to believe a lie, tell a couple friends, and before you know it, thousands of people could be believing something that was never true at all.

 

[Lova]

Chiming in also, metals _usually_only release particles when they are melted/heated near melting point/corroded(with acid or natural ways e.g. rusting or some other way). As far as I know, there is no health risk related to the usage of kanthal in vaping. I'm gonna keep using kanthal unless a private/impartial laboratory releases fully documented studies on kanthal in vaping usage and what adversary effects it has got/what is released from it during regular vaping.

If you wanted to use something else than kanthal, go for 316L stainless steel cold drawn wire, that's what G-Plat is but with a way higher price.